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Basin Storm – Big Bend National Park

Some photographs take months of planning, hours of preparation and minutes of execution. Others happen at the drop of a hat and it’s only through luck that the image was captured at all. Most, however, fall somewhere in between these two extremes and the luckiest photographers seem to be those that prepare the hardest.

Take this image for example. Jack and I had been following a line of small storm clouds running along the US / Mexico border for several hours hoping to catch a developing thunderstorm or at least some rainfall. These clouds had led us on a merry little chase along the “River Road” (FM 170) when they turned sharply east and headed toward the “Basin” in Big Bend National Park.

We drove through the park hoping to get ahead of the storm as it built up along the Chisos Mountains but it outpaced our best efforts. Knowing that we couldn’t catch the storm, we drove along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and decided to head for some higher ground we had scouted the day before. I quickly setup my camera and tripod on a small rise facing the mountains and followed the storm as it swept across the Chisos basin and headed southeast towards Mexico. If we hadn’t have scouted this area the day before as a potential location we would never have had the time to get these shots before the storm moved off. Our few hours of preparation and planning paid off in spades!